Fernand Melgar Collection ( Vol spécial / La forteresse / Album de famille ) ( Special Flight / The Fortress / Family Album )

Fernand Melgar Collection (DVD) (*)

$54.99

Original Title: Vol spécial / La forteresse / Album de famille
Alternate Title: Special Flight / The Fortress / Family Album
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
256 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
3-DVD Set
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Deleted Scenes
Featurette
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)
Booklet

Movie filmed in 1994-2011 and produced in:
Switzerland ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Fernand Melgar

Written By:
Fernand Melgar

Actors:
Fernando Melgar-Mestre ..... Self
Florinda Melgar-Mestre ..... Self

Synopsis:

***WARNING: Album de famille DOES NOT HAVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE OPTIONS***Special Flight: Switzerland still carries out special flights, where passengers, dressed in diapers and helmets, are chained to their seats for 40 hours at worst. They are accompanied by police officers and immigration officials. The passengers are flown to their native countries, where they haven't set foot in in up to twenty years, and where their lives might be in danger. Children, wives and work are left behind in Switzerland. Near Geneva, in Frambois prison, live 25 illegal immigrants waiting for deportation. They are offered an opportunity to say goodbye to their families and return to their native countries on a regular flight, escorted by plain-clothes police officers. If they refuse this offer, the special flight is arranged fast and unexpectedly. The stories behind the locked cells are truly heartbreaking. The Fortress: At the Registration Centre in Vallorbe, in the Swiss canton of Vaud, documentarist Fernand Melgar follows asylum-seekers throughout the process, limited to sixty days, that will result in their being granted refugee status, or not. An Armenian man, arriving at night in a lorry, is given some toiletries and is allocated a dorm. There he meets another Russian speaker who shows him around. Interviewed twice by a government official, the claimants have to justify their presence in Switzerland in terms of the danger they will face if they return to their home country. A centre employee explains to a young man from Togo that his country is now safe and that he must go back, while the latter wants only to see his father, who lives in Switzerland, and cannot understand why he is being refused to stay. At other moments, a real sense of community is felt, as in one long winter evening when the centre director, invited to a religious gathering, is visibly moved as he watches these believers, who, far from home and family, have not lost hope and keep smiling. Family Album: Album de famille is a letter addressed by Fernand Melgar to his parents, Florinda and Fernando, who immigrated to Switzerland at the end of the sixties. It is also addressed to a whole generation that came to work for several decades to compensate for the severe shortage of labour

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 12 July, 2020.